South Hobart v Olympia (NPL)

Honestly have not seen Olympia play a worse game than this. They’ve been horrible. South have been excellent as well and credit must go to them, but Olympia have been so far below their best today it isn’t funny.

74′ GOAL! Cartwright pokes home from the chaos zone after a corner. 6-2.

70′ SUB! OFF: Mearns ON: Allan

68′ SHOT OFF! Undy gets on the end of some good interplay between several Warriors but his shot is well wide.

65′ GOAL! Hamlett rounds out his hattrick from the spot. 6-1.

64′ PENALTY! Stevens gives away another penalty, cleans up Morton.

61′ SLICE OF CHEESE! Mearns goes whack and cleans up Gorrie with a wild swing at the ball. Light contact though on the replay!

South have absolutely whacked Olympia today. They look meek and afraid.

54′ GOALLLL!!! Scrap that, it’s all over. Morton snaps a shot from nothing and its in the bottom left. 5-1.

Olympia looking a little better this half, maybe the goal gives them a sniff. South unlikely to allow that.

50′ GOAL! Sklenar gets a chance and surprise surprise he has buried it. Smashes it into the bottom left to make it 4-1.

Interesting changes at half time.. Cartwright into centre back, Hill to midfield. Ortmann on at right back, so someone else has come off.

SECOND HALF UNDERWAY!

Olympia have been by far the worst they’ve played this year, they’ve been burning possession constantly, put no pressure on South and South have been the complete opposite. They’ve barely wasted a chance or a pass. Unbelievable stuff. Olympia look like they’re stuck in mud whilst South have got their skates on. I don’t think Olympia can salvage anything from this game at this stage unless they somehow pull it together. But Sklenar must be a frustrated man, he’s isolated, and the ball keeps going over his head rather than to his feet.

HALF TIME! SOUTH ARE SLAUGHTERING OLYMPIA.

43′ GOAL! Somehow Olympia have gifted another goal to South. Cole plays it short from a goal kick to Cartwright but it’s behind him and he goes to turn to get it but falls over. Morton streams in unopposed and slots home.

43′ CROSSBAR! Cole gets a slight finger on yet another Turner header and it slams into the bar.

40′ SHOT OFF! Thomas surges forward from the back and receives a ball from Hamlett. The big central defender flashes a shot just wide of the post!

37′ AMAZING SAVE! Brown somehow dives away to his left to deny a great volley from Undy. Should have been a goal but he’s plucked that out of nowhere.

35′ GOAL! Hamlett smacks it home! It’s 3-0.

35′ PENALTY AND SLICE OF CHEESE! Hill makes a lunging tackle from behind on Walter and gives away a penalty and gets a slice.

33′ SUB! An early sub, Bellini comes on for Leaman. A real early change here. Weston has seen enough.

28′ SHOULD HAVE BEEN ANOTHER! Kemp has somehow conspired to miss an open goal from two yards out! The ball had a bit on it but he should have been able to deflect it in there.

Into the 26th now, the Warriors are slowly starting to settle into the game a bit, fighting a bit harder.

Olympia all at sea at the minute, they’re horrible in possession. Burning it constantly.

17′ GOAL! South all over Olympia here, they can’t get into the game and Quaile whips in a great cross from the left and Turner rises to pound a header home easily. No pressure on him.

13′ GOAL! Olympia fail to clear the corner and Hamlett is on home to sweep it into the net from 6 yards out. 1-0 South.

South in control early now, they’ve taken the upper hand and are creating some chances. They need to capitalise on these because they may not have control all day.

6′ DOUBLE SAVE! Cole does well to get down to his right to deny Walter twice in quick succession, he cops a kick to his hand for trouble and needs some treatment. He is fine to play on.

Even contest early days, both teams trying to find their range.

KICK OFF! WE ARE UNDERWAY!

South Hobart Team Sheet:

Olympia Team Sheet:

Well, this should be an absolute cracker of a game today. Lots riding on this one. Olympia seeking to stay ahead of the pack whilst South Hobart will be trying their best to take the three points on offer and join Devonport at the top of the ladder (assuming the Strikers win their own game!). It’s Mark ‘Wiggo’ Wakefield bringing you this one today.

Not too sure what to expect today – Olympia will prefer this venue over their own as it gives them a bit more width to work with. They were defensively solid last weekend against the Zebras whilst the Zebras did not really set up to win the game in the first half. South would have taken something out of that game and Ken Morton will set his lads up to take all three points on offer.

Adding some extra spice into the mix was the fact that Coach Kenny Weston of Olympia openly admitted at his press conference that he had tried to sign up to three South Hobart players during the week but hadn’t been successful in attracting them. It will come as no shock that in all likelihood Ken Morton will use this as extra psychological motivation for his team. There are so many ways you could frame that attempted acquisition of players to fuel the boys from Darcy street even more than they would be normally.

I’m not too sure what to tip in this game. Regardless it will be an excellent encounter and hopefully more open than Olympia’s last game on the weekend. Anyway, if I was to make an educated guess at the result today, perhaps 3-2 Olympia. Sklenar to score a brace.

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The appetite for a professional sporting franchise down here remains as ravenous as ever. Tasmanian’s love their sport and they have been starved of representation in National competitions, looked over time after time. The AFL clearly won’t be the ones to sate that hunger, thus FFA finds itself with the chance to both fill that gap in the market and strike a blow against the AFL in one fell swoop.